(12-19-2014 08:30 AM)He1nousOne Wrote:  Medic, in the future we will no doubt we conferences expand their championships into tournaments of their own. Why? Money. That is why it is inevitable. I was one of very few that has consistently said the national tournament would expand sooner rather than later. Now that is a common belief but only because people are being told that by the media. The money will drive it as well as difficulties created by having to pick just four. I remember making that point before this season ever happened. I actually didn't think it would necessarily happen in the first year but it did.

So, to the point, the game is becoming a much more National game. With Michigan soon to land Harbaugh, the Big Ten is finally learning that it has to put all that money of theirs to work. It will rise again in prominence and not be such a bad place to play some football. Oklahoma would be in a four team division with their old rival Nebraska. They would most likely dominate their division and be in that highly visible Big Ten Tournament more often then not. That is a great route for them to receive even more National attention with berths to the National Tournament.

You know what kids from Texas want? National Attention and that is why Texas A&M has become the number one choice for Texas recruits. They aren't playing any of those teams from the Big 12, maybe one OOC game a year at most. Oklahoma would retain it's game against Texas every year. They would retain against Oklahoma State and probably more often then not they would schedule their final OOC game against some Texas team.

The Big Ten, if everyone follows the path of Ohio State and Michigan, will rise again and that is inevitable. Oklahoma in the SEC, do they get onto the National Stage all that often? I think it is a safe thing for me to say when I say that they will reach the National Stage much more often than they would in the SEC. That is what will matter most in future recruiting.

H1 if the Big 12 is absorbed we will simply move to a four champions model and the expansion in the playoffs will be at the conference level. 4 divisional champions will play for the conference championship and the conference champions will play for the title. That's better than expanding the national playoff anyway because the conferences keep all of their revenue for their internal playoffs.

The game is going national, but it is going to be regionalized for determining champions first. It is important to the networks to do it that way because it insures that all four regions of the nation are still involved through the national semifinals.

I agree that investing in coaching will help to close the gap, but the truth again is that most recruits stay near home. So the better coaching talent will close the gap for the Big 10 in on field play but all of the money in the world won't put you into the recruiting areas if you don't raid the ACC. And no matter what your assertions are, an Oklahoma in the Big 10 without Texas is a dead Sooner walking. Those Texas kids they depend on are going to stick with games closer to home than Wisconsin and Minnesota and Iowa and even Nebraska. Fans at OU are already very vocal about not playing teams they want to see. Arkansas, Missouri, A&M and the other Texas schools and OSU are who they care to play. And as far as rotational games go inside a conference schedule the SEC offers over 2 times the names to play as the Big 10. You have Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan outside of what would be the Sooners division. The SEC would have Auburn, Alabama, Florida, L.S.U., Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. Not to mention the number of schools they would desire to play in division would be greater in the SEC.

Just some things to think about. Plus it is a lot easier for Sooner fans to get to Gainesville than it would be to travel to Rutgers or Maryland for what most football fans would call less than stellar games. Kentucky would be the longest least desirable trip in the SEC and that's really not that far by comparison to most of the Big 10. No spin, just geography.